This question <23|16> overall <25|27> Hans: <22|27>.  
  Exam Question 45: How can one come to the conclusion that exchange-value is not something inherent in the commodity?   
  [26] Hans: Is exchange-value inherent or not?   Question 45 has been answered long ago, see [16] and [18]: the fact that the exchange-values of the same commodities vary with time and location can be used as evidence that exchange-value is not inherent in the commodity. This is all that was asked and this is all you would have to answer in an exam.   
  If there is evidence for it this does not mean it is true. Marx says that empirical evidence yields conflicting results: some evidence suggests that exchange-value is inherent, and other evidence suggests that it is not. This contradiction indicates that direct empirical evidence does not give us the full picture, something else must be going on beneath the surface. Marx's conclusion from this conflicting evidence is therefore that exchange-value is the observable expression of the unobservable social entity “value”. Value is inherent in the commodity, but its expression, the exchange-value, is not: exchange-value is purely relative, it sits between the commodities rather than inside them. (While value itself sits inside the commodities.)   
 
 
 
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